The html-webpack-plugin, a valuable tool for webpack users, streamlines the creation of HTML files that serve webpack bundles. Versions 2.26.0 and 2.27.0 share a core purpose but a closer examination reveals nuances relevant to developers. Both versions declare identical dependencies like lodash, bluebird, toposort, loader-utils, pretty-error, and html-minifier, ensuring consistent functionality related to utility functions, promise management, dependency sorting, and HTML minification. Similarly, their development dependencies, encompassing tools for tasks such as linting (semistandard), template processing (jade, underscore-template-loader), asset handling (css-loader, url-loader, file-loader, html-loader, jade-loader), and webpack extension (appcache-webpack-plugin, extract-text-webpack-plugin, webpack-recompilation-simulator), remain consistent between the two releases. They also share the same peer dependency requirements, specifying compatible webpack versions (1, 2, 2.1.0-beta, and 2.2.0-rc).
The primary distinction lies in the releaseDate. Version 2.27.0 was released on January 29, 2017, whereas version 2.26.0 was released on January 3, 2017. While the absence of explicitly stated changes between the two versions doesn't allow immediate conclusion, the updated release date suggests that version 2.27.0 potentially addresses bug fixes, performance improvements, or minor enhancements. Developers should consult the project's changelog or commit history on GitHub to pinpoint the specific modifications introduced in version 2.27.0 to determine if the update is essential for their use case or to resolve any issue they might have been facing. It’s crucial to evaluate this information before upgrading to ensure seamless integration and optimal performance.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 2.27.0 of the package
Prototype pollution in webpack loader-utils
Prototype pollution vulnerability in function parseQuery in parseQuery.js in webpack loader-utils prior to version 2.0.3 via the name variable in parseQuery.js.
Prototype Pollution in JSON5 via Parse Method
The parse method of the JSON5 library before and including version 2.2.1 does not restrict parsing of keys named __proto__, allowing specially crafted strings to pollute the prototype of the resulting object.
This vulnerability pollutes the prototype of the object returned by JSON5.parse and not the global Object prototype, which is the commonly understood definition of Prototype Pollution. However, polluting the prototype of a single object can have significant security impact for an application if the object is later used in trusted operations.
This vulnerability could allow an attacker to set arbitrary and unexpected keys on the object returned from JSON5.parse. The actual impact will depend on how applications utilize the returned object and how they filter unwanted keys, but could include denial of service, cross-site scripting, elevation of privilege, and in extreme cases, remote code execution.
This vulnerability is patched in json5 v2.2.2 and later. A patch has also been backported for json5 v1 in versions v1.0.2 and later.
Suppose a developer wants to allow users and admins to perform some risky operation, but they want to restrict what non-admins can do. To accomplish this, they accept a JSON blob from the user, parse it using JSON5.parse, confirm that the provided data does not set some sensitive keys, and then performs the risky operation using the validated data:
const JSON5 = require('json5');
const doSomethingDangerous = (props) => {
if (props.isAdmin) {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as admin.');
} else {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as user.');
}
};
const secCheckKeysSet = (obj, searchKeys) => {
let searchKeyFound = false;
Object.keys(obj).forEach((key) => {
if (searchKeys.indexOf(key) > -1) {
searchKeyFound = true;
}
});
return searchKeyFound;
};
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar"}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as user."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}
If the user attempts to set the isAdmin key, their request will be rejected:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "isAdmin": true}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props);
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...'); // Error: Forbidden...
}
However, users can instead set the __proto__ key to {"isAdmin": true}. JSON5 will parse this key and will set the isAdmin key on the prototype of the returned object, allowing the user to bypass the security check and run their request as an admin:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "__proto__": {"isAdmin": true}}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as admin."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}
kangax html-minifier REDoS vulnerability
A Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) flaw was found in kangax html-minifier 4.0.0 because of the reCustomIgnore regular expression.